Facebook Hardware Lab
The Facebook facility is named Area 404, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the common error message people receive when they visit a website that can’t be found. Facebook’s hardware engineers wanted a big, new research lab where they can all work together—and now they’ve “found” it, so to speak. Area 404 has been in development for 18 months, said Facebook mechanical and power manager Mikal Greaves during a Tuesday press event on the new lab. The construction of the lab began 9 months ago. The research lab is so new, there’s hardly any debris on the floors or near the heavy-duty drill presses at one of the lab’s offices, like one would find at a typical manufacturing facility. Facebook staff has only just started to use the lab in July, a company spokesperson said.
